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‘Broad City’ Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: “Kirk Steele”

Even with this season’s risk-taking and expanding, the writers of Broad City have an exceptional ability to make up for what the previous episode lacked.

Last week, the broads were locked in a room on a boat and this week they’re running all over the city. Because Abbi needs to scrape together $700 to replace the mirror she shattered in the first thirty seconds of the Kickass Kettlebell class Trey let her teach, because Abbi called Trey out for being a pornstar (“Thank you for calling me a star.”), because Ilana found Trey’s porn by way of a “Frosted Tips Masturbation” search, because green lipstick, a yoga mat, and a lemon-squeezed oyster.

Abbi’s Gardetto’s bender feels like a pivotal moment in the history of television. Finally the human species’ voracious appetite for the cherished Chex Mix bagel chip is represented on screen! And the extent to which Abbi uses them to fuel her brainstorm is a perfect parody of how we all actually feel: get them inside me no matter the means. Abbi’s brainstorm reveals that she used to sell chocolate shrooms, which I assume was taken directly or indirectly from her real life past as a jam band lovin’ Phish follower. Either way she decides against it because she “just got [her] record expunged” and decides instead to sell her clothes and her art, even though no one understands its brilliancy. The illustrations are Abbi’s real life artwork and I love the idea to pair celebrities with their imagined favorite foods. Also, Ilana’s heated exchange with the man who’s supposedly been “to her dick,” was LOL-worthy and satisfying, like all of her misogyny-crushing moments.

An episode that leaves Ilana in charge of another person means mountains of wisdom and one-liners that are equal parts absurd and inarguable. Ilana isn’t just watching Oliver, she’s “molding” him to prevent him from becoming another useless, rich, old white man who went to Yale Law, kills a stripper, and eventually settles out of court. Ilana teaches Oliver that the four R’s stand for “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rihanna,” convincing a rightfully begrudging brewista to reuse lipstick-stained coffee cups. The only place outside of Manhattan that Oliver has been is the Hampton’s, and when his mom squeals, “Having a gaybysitter would be wonderful for Oliver’s CV to get into middle school!” it’s confirmed that he’s one of Ilana’s most vital subjects.

The real star of “Kirk Steele” is Kirk Steele himself, aka Trey, played by Paul W. Downs. Downs has the quickest, most consistent timing of the entire Broad City cast, which makes the extra deep probing into Trey’s background a total joyride (joyride: n. the mounting and humping of an inflatable whale floatie to completion). Kirke Steele is 18, he’s from Orlando, FLA, and his favorite movie is Garden State. He uses beach balls to get himself off and he eats pizza in the nude, poolside. He makes me so happy and so sad, all at once. But the most valuable takeaway from this whole Kirk Steele revelation is, of all the porn in the world, Kirk’s is the porn that Ilana chooses for solo sexy time.

The money gets made, the mirror gets replaced, Trey probably has a kid, and Abbi gets to train a class — big strides for this broad, which by transitive property equals big strides for Ilana who’s probably back on the yoga mat, a mirror suspended overcrotch, a candle lit, and a photo of Abbi watching over her from afar.